Coalition commits to new Colombo plan, sending 300 students overseas

TONY Abbott has recommitted to a new Colombo plan supporting up to 300 young Australians to study in the Asia-Pacific region.

TONY Abbott has recommitted the Coalition to implementing a new Colombo plan to provide financial support to allow up to 300 young Australians to study in the Asia-Pacific region.

The $100m five-year plan, modelled on the original Colombo plan which between the 1950s and the 1980s assisted 40,000 people from the region to study in Australia.

Mr Abbott said the new plan would be better than the original, adding an outward-bound component to the original one-way plan.

Scholarships will be awarded to applicants under 22 years of age who are enrolled in an Australian university undertaking an undergraduate degree.

Applicants would undertake one or two semesters of study toward their degree at an accredited university within the Asia-Pacific region.

Mr Abbott said the program would start by 2015 and have a pilot program in place in 2014 which could include Indonesia, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong.

There would be scope for students to undertake internships with businesses or NGOs in host countries.

"This is change for the better," Mr Abbott said.

The Coalition has established a Steering Group chaired by business leader Kevin McCann. Professor Sandra Harding, vice-chancellor of James Cook University is deputy chair.

Mr Abbott said the original Colombo plan had been "a triumph of soft power".

"Many significant people have studied under the Colombo plan," Mr Abbott said.